Document feeding and transportation



Manch 1-0, 1970 A. v. MARTIN 3,4

I DOCUMENT FEEDING AND TRANSPORTATION Filed April 29, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 l4 INVENTOR.

Albert V Martin 35 BY H6 4 mm, M

. March 10, 1970 A. v. MARTIN DOCUMENT FEEDING AND TRANSPORTATION 2 Sheets-Sheet 2 Filed April 29, 1968 lOl [III/E777 A a H m 5 o2 5&5/

:wm .i wu 3 FIG 6 United States Patent US. Cl. 271-44 7 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Documents are selectively fed from a hopper containing a plurality of stacked documents by frictional engagement with a rotating cam located beneath the hopper which in a rest position permits all documents to lie flat. Upon rotation, the documents are first lifted slightly upwards and then engaged by a frictional portion of the cam for transporting the lowest one of such documents out from the stack of documents. Raising up the documents decreases the frictional engagement between adjacent documents and also the hopper bottom plate. One of the upstanding hopper end portions has an inwardly projecting cam with a mating inwardly opening recess on an opposing, upstanding end portion. As the documents descend into the hopper, their weight is primarily supported by the inwardly projecting cam, thereby limiting the weight on the frictional rotating cam such that substantially constant drive force is imparted to successively transported documents.

RELATED APPLICATION This application is a continuation-in-part of my application Ser. No. 682,041 filed NOV. 13, 1967.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to document-processing machines for transporting documents out of a hopper and particularly to such machines having an improved hopper arrangement.

Document-processing machines, such as card or page readers, card punches, and the like, are well known. Many such machines select and transport documents out of a hopper using pickers while others use frictional drive schemes. Because of document weight, such frictional drive schemes are often limited to the number of permissable documents in a hopper.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION It is an object of this invention to provide a documentprocessing machine having a friction document drive relatively insensitive to the number of documents in a hopper.

It is another object of this invention to provide a document-processing machine or simple design and constructed at low cost.

A feature of the present invention is the provision of an automatic document-feeding hopper assembly which removably fits into place in a document-processing machine.

It is another feature of the present invention of a document-feeding mechanism in which the documents are moved vertically prior to feeding horizontally for reducing friction imposed by the documents above and the plate below the document being moved or fed.

Another feature is a hopper arrangement wherein the document weight on the rotating cam is limited irrespective of the number of documents in the hopper. The limited weight is provided by a combination of an inwardly-projecting cam or tooth and a mating inwardlyopening recess on opposing upstanding wall portions such that the cam supports a major portion of the weight of a stack of documents.

In one embodiment of the present invention a tabletop type of card processing machine has a large rectangular aperture to its upper surface. When it is desired to manually feed documents, a flat plate having a downwardly opening recess is disposed over such aperture with a drive cam residing into the recess. A hopper which fits into the rectangular aperture has an inwardly-projecting cam and a mating inwardly-opening recess on opposing hopper end portions. As the documents descend they are forced into the mating recess and descend around the cam with the weight of most of the documents in the stack being on the inwardly projecting cam. The weight on the frictional rotating cam is controlled such that the weight of the document stack does not prevent documents from bowing as the rotating cam urges the stack upwardly.

THE I DRAWING FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a card reader used to illustrate the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic plan view of the FIG. 1 apparatus with a cutaway portion over the document-processing station to show the drive roller arrangement and with a hopper snapped into place.

FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic sectional view taken in the direction of the arrows along line 33 in FIG. 2 and further having cards in the hopper under an articulated weight.

FIG. 4 is a view similar to the FIG. 3 but showing a flat cover plate covering the tabletop aperture in place of the FIG. 3 illustrated document hopper.

FIG. 5 is a diagrammatic sectional view of the hopper which provides a maximum weight of documents on the rotating carn to always provide a bow in the documents as the cam is rotated.

FIG. 6 is a plan diagrammatic view of a document transport having a document rotating cam centrally of the hopper with a pair of picker knives to move the documents out of the hopper.

FIG. 7 is a diagrammatic cross-sectional view of a hopper usable with the present invention and which has an adjustable outlet.

DESCRIPTION THE ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT Referring more particularly now to the drawing, like numbers indicate like parts and structural features in the various views. A card reader is utilized to illustrate the present invention. The card reader in FIG. 1 includes document-transport table 10 having an upstanding document guide 11 extending along the entire length of one edge. Document processing station 12, in the present i1- lustration a card-reading station, is cantilevered over table 10 from behind guide rail 11. Station 12 is disposed within housing 13. Housing 13 is removable to expose the operating portions of station 12 by being pivoted about axis 15 on reader housing 14 to dotted line position 16. The card reader is. provided with a control c nsole 17 which may have a plurality of electrical switches for controlling the operation of the reader in a known manner. For example, one of the switches may be an on-off switch for actuating processing station 12 for sensing documents to be processed.

The FIG. 1 illustration is for a manually-fed card reader wherein table 10 has a completely flat upper surface. The document to be processed, such as a tabulating card, is placed against guide rail 11 on table 10 and moved under station 12 wherein it is engaged by drive rollers 20 and 21 (FIG. 2), and then transported through station 12.

When using the reader as a manually-fed card reader,

Patented Mar. 10, 1970 no limitation is imparted to the width of the document. In fact, a document having a width greater than the width \of table may be utilized. A sufficiently rigid document may actually extend over outer edge 22 of table 10 and :still be successfully read by the card reader. It should be noted that processing station 12 only reads a portion of such a document, i.e., that portion adjacent guide rail- 11. In this manner, documents contain marks to be automatically or machine read plus auxillary information. The card reader may accommodate both manually-fed operation and automatic or semiautomatic document feeding. Table 10 has a large aperture 25 therein which, in the manually-fed version, is covered with flat plate 26 (FIGS. 1 and 4) for forming a completely flat document-transport table. To convert the reader to semiautomatic or automatic document feeding, plate 26 is removed and document hopper 27 is snapped onto table 10 as best seen in FIG. 3. Hopper 27 has aperturcd bottom plate 28 with extending fingers 29 for locking under table 10. Table 10 has a finger 30 extending into aperture 25 for holding hopper bottom plate 28 in position shown. The outer end of hopper 27 rests on a top portion of housing 14. Hopper 27 is held firmly onto housing 14 by spring clip 31 of known design. To remove hopper 27 from the card reader, the extending portion 32 of bottom plate 28 is lifted upwardly and then the fingers 29 are slid out from under table 10. To insert hopper 27 into the card reader, the reverse procedure is followed.

The hopper feed mechanism is explained with respect to FIG. 3 wherein it is seen that the hopper 27 has one of its edges 32A resting on top of guide rail 11 such that no corners obstruct document transport. A horizontal slit 33 is provided in the front end of hopper 27 for permitting only the bottom document 18 to be moved by rotating cam 34 toward document-processing station 12. Rollers 20 and 21 then engage the document 18 for completing the transport through the station. A receiving hopper (not shown) may be disposed adjacent the card reader for collecting read documents.

Driving cam 34 consists of a pair of side cam portions 34A and 343 with a center frictional material 39 for moving the document 18. The side portions 34A and 34B are relatively smooth and slip on the document 18. As best seen in FIG. 4, cams 34 when in a rest position have index portion 36 facing upwardly. Portion 36 is arranged to be below the document 18 permitting it to lie fiat. As the cam assembly 34 is rotated by drive means 35 of known design, there is a dwell period in which there is no engagement with the document 18. Camming portion 38 smoothly raises document 18 upwardly several document thicknesses for making a center bow therein as best seen in FIG. 3. Portion 38 has no friction-engaging material, permitting the documents to move only vertically. As the cam continues to rotate, frictional material 39, which extends above the cam portions 34A and 34B, as best seen in FIG. 3, engages document 18 and moves it to the left through slit 33 toward processing station 12. The lower document 18 remains bowed throughout the movement for reducing the frictional engagement between the various documents stacked in hopper 27 Cams 34 include return portion 40 which rapidly returns the documents to index portion 36. To maintain constant pressure throughout the documents for efficient and malfunction-free transport, an articulated weight 41 is disposed on top of the document stack. As shown, weight 41 is pivoted in the center as at 42 such that when the documents are bowed the weight follows the contour of the bowing to a limited extent. Dotted lines 43 illustrate the position of the weight when documents are flat. Any weight which substantially follows the contour of the documents when bowed is sufiicient to provide even distribution of weight for effecting a more error-free feeding of documents from the hopper 27.

For example, cam 34 when in the index position (FIG. 4) may be 0.270 inch below the top of table 10. The

cam has a maximum radius 0.330 inch greater than the index radius for causing a vertical movement of the documents of 0.090 inch or approximately 12 times a card thickness of 0.007 inch. While greater or less vertical movements may be used to successfully practice the present invention, it is believed that for tabulating cards a vertical movement of at least ten times the card thickness is highly desirable.

Processing-station 12 includes read-head assembly 44 of known design with a plurality of resilient fingers 45 for holding document 18 flatly against table 10 for good reliable reading.

As best seen in FIG. 2 hopper 27 accommodates documents about the width of station 12. It is understood that hopper 27 may be made wider such as shown by dotted line 18A in FIG. 1. In such a situation hopper bottom plate 28 still fits into aperture 25, however, upstanding guides 50, 51 would be extended over table 10 to line up with dotted line 18A. Table 10 then serves as a portion of the hopper bottom. The machine read portion of document 18 remains the same; the remainder of such wider document being usable for other purposes.

As best seen in FIG. 4, fiat plate 26 has a downwardly opening recess 45 for accommodating the portion 36 of cam 34.

In operating the illustrated embodiment shown in FIGS. 1, 2, and 3, a stack of 500 or more tabulating-type cards had suflicient weight such that the effect of cam portion 38 on the stack of cards was to lift all cards in parallel relationship rather than bowing the lower cards as illustrat ed in FIG. 3. With fewer cards the operation was satisfactory. To accommodate a large number of cards, the upstanding hopper end members 50 and 51 were modified as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. Front upstanding end portion 50 has an inwardly projecting cam or tooth 100. In a constructed embodiment cam was spaced above the hopper bottom plate less than 100 tab card thicknesses. The cam has a curved upwardly-facing surface which forces descending documents 101 laterally in a parallel fashion toward inwardly-opening recess 102 in rear upstanding end portion 51. The upper edge 103 of recess 102 is slightly above the upper end of the curved surface 104 of inwardly-projecting cam 100. At the inward end of cam 100 the documents 101 are movably engaging rearward end portion 51. It is understood that inwardlyextending cam 100 extends across the entire front of end portion 50 as best seen in FIG. 6, no limitation thereto intended.

Beginning at the lower end of recess 102, as at 105, a forwardly extending ramp 106 moves the cards forwardly toward front-end portion 50 such that the lower few cards front edge including bottom card 33 are immediately adjacent the front end portion 50. The power end of ramp 106 is vertically aligned with the upper inner surface of rearward end portion 51. Cam surface 99 may be included below cam 100. This latter surface should be designed to cooperate with cam 106 such that the stack of documents descend while in a horizontal position.

The height of inwardly projecting cam 100 above the bottom plate 32 of the hopper is determined b the characteristics of the document, i.e., the thickness, weight, etc., including frictional engagement with rotating cam 34. To further facilitate the removal of the bottom document 33 from the stack of documents, the forward knife edge of portion 50 has an upward oblique surface 110 which tends to force bottom document 33 into space 111 between point 112 of the front knife edge 113 and bottom plate 32. Oblique surface 110 is such that the second from the bottom document 114 is retained in the hopper.

When documents of diverse lengths are to be transported from the hopper, rotating cam 34 is placed between the midpoints of the shortest and longest documents. For example, in a hopper constructed for a 51 column and an 80 column tabulatory card the cam 34 was disposed along approximately the midpoint between the length of the hopper as indicated by dotted lines 122 and 123. The forward movement of knives 120 and 121 toward upstanding end portion 50 is synchronized with cam 34 rotation such that the knives start forward movement only after the document stack has been lifted by the cam. Note the picker knives straddle the cam 34'. The picker knives may be constructed and operated in the same manner as picker knives used in tab card hoppers that do not have cam 34'.

FIG. 7 illustrates another hopper which relieves the weight on rotor 34. In this embodiment cam 100 is dispensed with, and with the inward facing surface 150 of front upstanding member 50 being vertical. A recess 151 adjustably receives hardened steel member 152 for forming a document exit throat 111 next to bottom plate 32. A downwardly and forwardly beveled surface 153 is on the inward side of member 152. A matching ramp 154 is on the bottom end of rearward upstanding member 51. That is, the horizontal spacing between points on ramp 154 are all one document length from surface 153; both have the same angle with respect to bottom plate 32. The weight of the document stack 101 is partially taken by ramp 154 such that the bowing of the lower ones of the documents in stack 101 is facilitated. In a constructed embodiment, ramp 154 had a height of about six document thicknesses with the heights of cam surface 153 and 154 being identical and the two forming identical angles with respect to bottom plate 32. In other respects the operation is as described for the other embodiments.

I claim:

1. Apparatus for feeding a document from a stack of documents contained in a vertical hopper, each document having a predetermined thickness, the improvement including in combination,

the hopper having a bottom plate with a central aperture,

cam means movable upwardly through said central aperture for lifting any documents central of the hopper away from said bottom plate, document engaging means operative to engage and horizontally move a bottom one of said documents only when said cam means has lifted such documents,

the hopper having front and rear vertically extending end portions, one of said end portions having an inwardly projecting cam disposed a predetermined number of document thicknesses above said bottom plate,

another one of said end portions having an inwardly opening recess opposite said cam and adapted to receive documents cammed toward said recess,

means on said rear end portion from a point intermediate said cam and said bottom plate to the bottom of said rear end portion for urging documents forwardly toward said front end portion and said front end portion being spaced from said bottom plate less than two document thicknesses.

2. The apparatus of claim 1 wherein said one end portion is said front end portion and said another upstanding end portion is the rear end portion and the lastmentioned means including an angled ramp extending downwardly and forwardly from said inwardly-opening recess, said cam extending rearwardly to a rearward extremity.

3. The apparatus of claim 2 further including a cam surface extending downwardly and forwardly .from the rearward extremity in a matched relation to said ramp such that the horizontal spacing between said ramp and said cam surface is never less than the length of any document to be included in said stack of documents.

4. A universal document transport comprising a document transporting table on a housing having a large aperture therein adjacent a document processing station, a guide rail along one edge of the table extending past said document processing station and said large aperture, drive means in the processing station for moving a document through the station,

the improvement including in combination,

a removable document hopper adapted to fit on said table at said aperture and having front and rear upstanding end portions, said front upstanding end portion being spaced above said transporting table less than two thicknesses of a document to be transported,

cam means under said table adjacent said hopper when snapped in for selectively moving documents upwardly away from said bottom plate,

document drive means operative to move a bottom one document toward said processing station during the time said cam means has moved the documents away from said bottom plate,

a flat plate adapted to be snapped into said receptacle whenever said hopper is not snapped therein and for forming a flat document transporting surface with said table,

said front upstanding end portion having a forwardly and downwardly extending cam surface disposed a predetermined number of document thicknesses above said bottom plate whenever said hopper is inserted on the reader,

said rear upstanding portion having a forwardly and downwardly extending ramp adjacent said bottom plate having an angle with respect to said bottom plate the same as the angle between said cam surface and said bottom plate such that the weight of documents in the hopper is partially on said ramp.

5. The apparatus of claim 4 wherein said front upstanding member has a rearwardly projecting cam tooth a predetermined number of document thicknesses above said bottom plate and said rear upstanding member has a forwardly opening recess opposite said tooth for receiving documents cammed rearwardly by said tooth and said recess being immediately above said ramp.

6. A hopper for holding a stack of documents in a horizontal position and adapted to permit removal of a bottom one of document from the stack of documents, including in combination,

a bottom plate,

a front upstanding end portion having a rearwardly extending tooth with a rearwardly-downwardly sloping upper surface for movably holding documents above the tooth and for camming documents rearwardly as the stack of documents descend in the hopper with the documents remaining substantially parallel to said bottom plate, and

a rearward upstanding end portion having a forwardly opening recess opposite said rearwardly facing tooth and spaced above said bottom plate at least as high as said cam and with a depth at least as great as said tooth extends rearwardly for receiving said documents as they are cammed rearwardly by said tooth, and a forwardly and downwardly extending ramp between said recess and bottom plate for forcing documents toward said forward upstanding end portion such that at least the bottom two of documents in said stack of documents engage said forward upstanding end portion.

7. The hopper of claim 6 further including a cam surface means extending downwardly and forwardly from a rearward portion of said tooth. 1

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 8 2,737,388 3/1956 Gottscho 27144 FOREIGN PATENTS 1,010,869 6/1957 Germany.

5 RICHARD E. AEGERTER, Primary Examiner US. Cl. X.R. 27161 

